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Tuesday, February 9, 2010

Olympics take center stage, now what are the US athletes going to do with it?

The Winter Olympics should be the only game in town this weekend now that the Super Bowl (and parade) have come and gone. The last major TV event until the Masters and NBA Finals there isn’t anything standing between the games and sky high ratings. Same time zone, duel country interest, and actually some interesting personalities/stories to follow should make for good fodder. Now if NBC can get out of its own way with the coverage we should be all good. So if they’re listening, I would rather see a gold medal match in curling than an American competing for 6th place in cross country skiing. Let’s see the events where it’s all on the line and the best that the games have to offer rather than the most obscure event that just happens to contain a US competitor.

With that said, let’s hope the US Hockey team gives us an opportunity to see them competing for a medal but it’ll be tough. If they have a “group of death” as they do in the World Cup then the US are in it. Along with Canada, Norway, and Switzerland it can’t get any worse with the possible exception if Russia replaced Norway. The odd were against the US to begin with as they are really young on the front lines (which they’ll need to have the speed to keep up) and very experienced in the goal. The knock is the age on the defensive side and lack of “world level” game experience. The Canadians will be on a mission to erase the embarrassment of 2006, the Swiss are stacked with players, and Norway could be one of the surprise teams. If 80’ was a miracle on ice then just getting through the group of death in 2010 would only leave GM Brian “Saint” Burke with two more to go. Do you think the US has a chance to medal? Let us know your thoughts here and in any of the Olympic quick links: